How to set a reasonable mini goal

Take the pressure off. You will have good days; You will have bad days (ie: you will cheat).

Cheating does not mean you failed. It means you had a day where you ate a bit more. Just keep going, and keep logging your food.

You're seeking a lifestyle change here, not a quick fix. Stop weighing in daily, and just stick to the calorie count MFP calculated for you. You will get there, even if you cheat every now and then. There is no failure, until you give up and return to your old lifestyle entirely.

I set a few that were meaningful to me. I'd recently gained weight so my first goal was to get back to my previous high weight, then I want to get under 200, then 180 (lowest I've ever been as an adult) and then 165 just as a random #. Then I also celebrate every 5% I lose which from where I started its about 12.5 lbs. Right now I've lost 11.5% of my weight and that feels pretty awesome to me

I guess the reason I want set a goal is because it feels like I am accomplishing something, like checking something of a list, that and I really want to get another tattoo and I want to use that as an incentive.

Check out HabitRPG.com if you're a todo list junkie like me. Think of it as a "Tamagotchi" style game for your to-do list and habits.

I made hitting my MFP goals a "Daily", and it keeps my eating in check. I also use it to keep track of other stuff in my life, but that's outside the scope of this conversation haha.

You could even set up a custom Reward for your tattoo once you've gotten enough rewards to justify it.

If the gamification idea doesn't work for you - make it a policy to post how much you were under/over your calories for the day on Facebook or something. That way, you'll feel accountable to your FB friends.

I guess the reason I want set a goal is because it feels like I am accomplishing something, like checking something of a list, that and I really want to get another tattoo and I want to use that as an incentive.

I've set getting a new tattoo as a reward for reaching my "perfect body" goal. It hasn't happened probably because it's too big of a goal and not measurable. So, now new goal is to log every day and reduce my body fat percentage to where I want it. Then maybe I'll get that tattoo/

I think setting mini-goals has really helped me not get overwhelmed. I'd like to lose about 75 pounds total and was completely overwhelmed about it so focusing 5 or 10 pounds at a time has really helped. When I get anxious looking further down the road I have to calm myself down and think about my current goal. For instance, I started at 216 so the first 10 pounds "proved" to me something was actually working. Then getting under 200 was a major goal. Then at 196 I was 20 pounds down, then 195 was mid 190's, then fitting into a smaller size etc. So every 4-5 pounds I have something to get excited about. Also, I like to reflect on non-scale victories...good choices becoming less of a struggle on average, more energy. I have a long way to go still so I think the biggest thing for me was excepting and re-excepting that a healthy sustainable weightloss is going to take time. Mini goals can be totally up to you with what you think will keep you motivated, maybe it's trying out one dietary switch for a week or working in more activity.

I knew myself well enough to know that I had always been crazed by numbers, so my goal, from the very beginning, was to eat one delicious meal planned to be packed with my nutritional needs, and not eat after it until it was time for my next meal.

This has proven more powerful and more successful than anything I have ever done. I never go off and on, I'm never a failure or a success, and Glory Be, I'm never focused on the damn number.

I suffered the loss of a loved one in the spring, and my number loss slowed to a crawl, but with very few exceptions, my goal remained stable and manageable.

Give it a try. See if this perspective could work for you!

Set a goal that will be achievable. 2lbs a week is a great goal. Set a goal of losing 10-12lbs a month. This will change after a few months as it is harder to lose. If you are craving something, set a goal to make yourself wait and at the end of the week you want it, treat yourself to it. Don't ban yourself from things that you want because you will binge and over eat and your 2lbs/wk goal will be blown. Take it slow and you will be successful.

2lbs per week is more than most people will reasonably lose each month. 10-12 lbs per month is more than 2 lbs per week. Unless OP has a very large amount of weight to lose, setting her goals like this will be unrealistic and end up getting her down if she can't meet them (most people could no meet these goals).

IMO goals should not be weight-loss based but rather diet and exercise based. Results will follow as a natural consequence of discipline in those areas. Maybe loss of inches as a goal, but so many things can affect the scale number that it is not a good idea to use that for short term goals.

There is an open group on MFP called "lose 5lb in September" - it runs every month and you post your current weight every week and your aim for the end of the month. I have done it for two months now and found it a great incentive to keep going. There will be a new page starting for October. Other goals that might suit you are to drop a dress size, lose 10% of your body weight, walk 10k steps every day, train for a 5k run.

The problem with setting goals like lose 2lbs a week is that your body is very adaptable and at some point you are not going to lose weight (you might lose fat, build muscle etc). That will just drive you crazy and make you want to quit. In addition weight loss isn't linear. The beauty of MFP is the logging. I pull up the reports and look at the weekly net calories and if I see > 3500 I am supper happy because that is approximately 1 pound of fat. If I see over 300 minutes of exercise, I know that my heart is getting twice what it needs.

I can't control when the results happen so I'm not going to drive my self batty by putting a time based milestone. All I can do is focus on my activities to get me there and go to bed with a smile on my face everyday knowing that I beat my MFP goal for the day.

I am a firm believer in short/medium/long term planning. Therefore I picked a long term goal of being a sexy beast! Now I had to figure out how to get there. short term was getting back down to my natural maintenance weight. Medium was signing up for a 1/2 marathon. Figured the cardio and such would benefit the short and long term goals. As I got down to my first goal weight I started aiming for another 10 lbs. down.

Here's the thing with long term planning. It will restructure short term goals. Now I really that being a sexy beast isn't just hitting a weight on a scale. It's having the confidence in yourself regardless of your physical condition. I also realized that the extra 10 lbs didn't need to come off. I was at a good weight, I just needed to start losing fat. So I am eating at just below my current TDEE now and lifting. Why? because muscular physique was what my long term goal entailed, not just losing weight. And guess what, I found out that the physical aspect still changed my definition of sexy beast. Now it's the ability to pick something I want to do, and just go do it. so I guess that while I haven't reached the physical goal I had set, I did accomplish the long-term!

So goals change, and as long as you keep your eye on the long term end, you can tailor the milestones however you need, and adjust on the fly.